Hi Steve and welcome to linux.org
. You'll get a few people passing through at different times from different timezones around the world, I am from DownUnder, so my avatar (left, picture) might look upside down to you
.
a) I don't use Windows, only Linux, and b) I don't have an ssd, but I am hoping the Father's Day Good Fairy or Santa bring me one.
BUT (Wizard always has a but/t) I can ask some questions that will help others. And tell you a few pointers.
Is the Toshiba something like this? Albeit it now has the ssd in it.
https://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-a665-s6050/specs/
In particular, does it have
3-4 USB ports for USB sticks/pendrives, call them what you like.
Which
version of Windows, Steve? 7, 8/8.1 or 10?
If it is 8/8.1 and upwards, it may have to have you run a process called
"Disable Secure Boot" before you can run Ubuntu or any other Linux on it. That's a gimmick of the manufacturers and Microsoft not Linux. We can tell you how to do that first.
I don't do condescending nor patronising, so don't think of me putting you through some sort of IQ test, will you?
And I'm in my 60s, you beat me there.
You may have some confusion between CDs and DVDs, or you can tell me otherwise. CDs hold 700MB of data, DVDs 4.7GB of data, unless they are listed as being dual layer/double layer, in which case they hold twice those amounts.
Ubuntu downloads are typically 1.2 to 1.5 GB in size, and that would apply also to the
DVD you bought, so it doesn't fit on a CD. If the store sent you a CD, they've done the dirty on you.
With downloading from the Ubuntu website (and that is all you should use, broadly speaking), you download it to your computer first, it will be an .iso with a name resembling this - ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso , could be anything between 16.04 and 16.04.4. These are supported (lts is Long Term Support) for 5 years with software updates and the first 2.5 years for hardware updates. You don't want 17.10, because it is an "in-betweener" called a Point Release that only has a 9 month support which ends in July coming. So 16.04 lts supported until April 2021, 18.04 lts until April 2023.
Linux can also be installed via USB stick, and that may be a preferred option if you don't have many blank DVDs. In either case, if the installation is to be performed from a downloaded .iso , it can't just be
copied to the stick or DVD, it has to be "burned", and depending on which Windows you tell us you have, we can tell you what software may ship with it to do that, or free Windows software to download and install to do that.
If you take the download route, we will also advise you to check that what has downloaded is "The Real McCoy". This involves checking what is called a hashsum, and we can tell you Windows tools for doing that, also dependent on Windows version installed.
So have a think about all the above, have some answers to the questions I asked, and we'll try to tailor a solution that suits your needs.
Cheers
Chris Turner
wizardfromoz